Best of 2005 Awards

90 West Street

Project of the Year: Adaptive Reuse

The restoration and conversion of 90 West Street in Manhattan won the admiration of the Best of 2005 jury for the sheer scale of its transformation. It went from a 1907 office building that sustained heavy damage in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to a high-end residential tower that recaptures the glory of its original Cass Gilbert design.

"I think 90 West has to be [best in its class] just from the condition it was in," one jury member said.

The 360,000-sq.-ft. building had been clad in scaffolding for an exterior restoration when debris from the World Trade Center, just one block north, tore gaping holes through the northern façade and set the interior on fire.

When a partnership between Brack Capital Real Estate, Kibel Cos., and investors Ira Drucker and Richard Born, all based in New York, purchased the building for $12 million from the previous owners after the attacks, no one knew the full extent of the damage. The new ownership team decided to capitalize on the building's 10- to 17-ft.-tall ceilings and views of the Hudson River in choosing to convert it into 410 residences.

The partners secured $106.5 million in Liberty Bond financing for the $145 million restoration and conversion, which had a two-year construction timetable that one juror called a "logistical nightmare." In addition, the building's historic designation from the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission meant that the team had to restore or replicate many intricate ornamental and structural details.

The project team had to coordinate with city and state downtown redevelopment officials and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey because of the rebuilding work at the World Trade Center site. It also required significant internal coordination between its team members, which included Levine Builders of New York as the interior construction manager and Seaboard Weatherproofing and Restoration of Port Chester, N.Y., as its exterior counterpart. Similarly, New York-based H. Thomas O'Hara Architects designed the interior work while Façade Maintenance Design of New York handled the exterior plans.

Designed by Gilbert to serve as a tribute to New York's mercantile industry, and later paving the way for his celebrated design of the nearby Woolworth Building, the 25-story structure at 90 West has three distinct exterior sections: a solid-block granite base rising up to the fourth floor, which helped to preserve the building's structural integrity during the attacks; terra-cotta exterior panels on the upper floors, featuring intricate detail and ornamentation such as gargoyle figurines; and a mansard top with a copper roof.

Most of the serious damage was at the point of contact on the northern façade and in the areas where interior structural steel buckled in the fire's heat. The project team also had to clean and lightly repair the rest of the façade.

"Trying to replicate the terra cotta, the gargoyles - I know it was extremely difficult and very labor intensive," one jury member said.

The team replaced more than 7,000 terra-cotta stones and 100 gargoyles, taking casts of undamaged elements on the southern, western, and eastern façades to match the originals. It also completely rebuilt the copper roof and substituted fiberglass to replace the original balustrade, even matching the caulking detail.

The team also replaced damaged 3- to 6-ft.-thick granite blocks in the original exterior base with panels featuring 3-in.-thick granite faces mounted on steel frames. The new stone, which came from a Maine quarry, went to Italy and Canada for hand carving and finishing before heading to Utah for installation on the steel frames.

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The interior work was also substantial, given the building's age, the fire damage, and previous renovations that had obscured older features. The team had to replace the mechanical and electrical systems as well as the elevators, with M G J Associates/M G Engineering of New York serving as mechanical engineer.

Meanwhile, New York's DeSimone Consulting Engineers drew a structural redesign that allowed the team to install new floor plates that were half the thickness of the original 1-ft.-thick plates, thereby reducing the building's overall load.

Some of the interior work involved pleasant surprises. While demolishing layers of concrete and paint in the drab lobby, workers discovered intricate cast-iron, frieze, and plaster work that previous renovations had obscured. The team was able to restore and clean those features, making them a noteworthy part of the final product. <<

Key Players

Owner: BCRE-90 West Street

Construction Manager-Interiors: Levine Builders

Architect-Interiors: H. Thomas O'Hara Architects

Construction Manager-Exterior: Seaboard Weatherproofing & Restoration

Architect-Exterior: Façade Maintenance Design

Structural Engineer: DeSimone Consulting Engineers

Mechanical Engineer: M G J Associates/ M G Engineering